Blessed John Paul II Parish Community Garden

Donations
The Blessed John Paul II parish community garden is an idea that came about in an effort to give back healthy and nutritious food to families that are unable to afford to buy them. The vegetables and eventually fruits will be given to both parish members and also non-parish members. There is a food shelter approximately one mile away, Operation Good Neighbor, whom will receive the majority of items that we grow. Another way we plan to give back is to hold events during the summer to take the grown vegetables and create a full dinner out of them and take the dinner to another local food bank, Little Portion Friary.
The building and maintenance of the garden is truly a community project. The raised garden beds are being built with the local boy scouts and other volunteers. The seeds will be started with the help of our school that is also located at the garden site. Each classroom will start seeds and maintain them, until the planting season arrives. This will be a very educational experience for the children. When the planting and maintaining of the garden arrives, we have thirty families who have signed up to volunteer. We want to make this a genuine family experience for all involved.
We are hoping that the people we reach with these items will then come and help with the garden. We have plenty of room to expand and within three years we hope to triple the size of the garden and also have blueberry bushes along with apple and pear trees.